mélopée

\me.lɔ.pe\

/\me.lɔ.pe\/ noun

The verdict

“mélopée” is uncommon French (frequency #87,869 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#87,869
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Composition du chant, on ne l’emploie qu’en parlant de la musique antique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-melopee · mélopée · French

mélopée · rank #87,869 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #87,869
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH môssieur

Nearest frequency peer: môssieur (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « mélopée »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « mélopée » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for mélopée
PropertyValue
Headwordmélopée
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\me.lɔ.pe\
Letters7
Frequency rank#87,869
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mélopée » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).mélopéetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « môssieur » (#87,870), « médiale » (#87,867), « médaillées » (#87,866). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mélopée » est au #87,869. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mélopée is uncommon French at frequency #87,869 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \me.lɔ.pe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for mélopée in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is mélopée, spelled M-É-L-O-P-É-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Composition du chant, on ne l’emploie qu’en parlant de la musique antique.
  2. 2
    Déclamation chantée ; chant récitatif ; chant monotone.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mélopée appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. S’accompagnant de son gimbri, il nous chante, d'une voix tantôt gutturale, tantôt nasillarde, d’interminables mélopées, que l’assistance reprend aux refrains avec des battements rythmiques des mains.
  2. Brusquement, le grondement sonore des tambourins, vient couvrir toutes les voix. Les chanteuses, d’une voix chevrotante, entonnent une étrange mélopée : « Nous célébrons une fête pour nos seigneurs les esprits. »

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mélopée"?
"mélopée" is spelled M-É-L-O-P-É-E. The IPA pronunciation is \me.lɔ.pe\.
What does "mélopée" mean?
As a noun, "mélopée" means: Composition du chant, on ne l’emploie qu’en parlant de la musique antique.
How do you pronounce "mélopée"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mélopée" is \me.lɔ.pe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mélopée" come from?
"mélopée" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mélopée", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list